Gozzip Girl brings turf streak to Garden City

Gozzip Girl, a winner of four straight turf stakes, will go for No. 5 in Saturday's Grade 1, $300,000 Garden City Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park.

ELMONT, N.Y. - After briefly toying with the idea of trying Gozzip Girl on dirt, trainer Tom Albertrani ultimately decided not to fix what wasn't broken. On Saturday, Gozzip Girl will seek her fifth consecutive stakes win on turf in the Grade 1, $300,000 Garden City Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at Belmont Park.

Typically a haven for European shippers, this year's Garden City did not draw one horse from overseas among its nine entrants. Thus, Gozzip Girl's major competition figures to come from winner Shared Account and the undefeated Maram.

Gozzip Girl began her turf winning streak in south Florida with back-to-back wins in the at Hollywood Park, in what was her lifetime-best performance July 5.

"You want them to be peaking at the right time, and I think right now since she came back from California we think she's at that same level," said Albertrani, who trains Gozzip Girl for Myron Miller's Farnsworth Stables.

Albertrani admitted that the cross-country trip plus the American Oaks took a toll on Gozzip Girl. That's one reason he elected not to try her on the dirt in the Grade 1 Alabama at Saratoga. Also, Albertrani noted that Gozzip Girl did not run well in her career debut, which was a race moved from turf to the dirt.

"She started to come back to her old self maybe just over two weeks ago; she started to put on the weight that she had lost from the trip back and forth," Albertrani said. "She looks like she's back to her old self again and she's been training really well."

Gozzip Girl breaks from the rail under Kent Desormeaux. She has displayed versatility, having won the Sands Point on the lead and the American Oaks from off the pace. She's handled yielding turf at Belmont and firm ground at Gulfstream and Hollywood.

Shared Account has steadily improved through the summer for trainer Graham Motion, winning the Grade 2 Lake Placid at Saratoga after coming up a head short in the at Colonial Downs. She is wheeling back in three weeks, but Motion said the filly is doing too well to leave in the barn.

"It was not originally my plan [to run], but she seems to be doing well," Motion said. "It's an opportunity in a Grade 1, it seems a shame to pass up. It's going to be a new turf course that will even have a little give in it, which she should like."

Maram is the wildcard in the field. Undefeated in four career starts - including last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf - Maram has been bothered by foot issues. She shed the frog - the bottom part of a horse's foot that acts like a shock absorber - in both front feet. She has been fitted with aluminum pads and has trained well in them, according to trainer Chad Brown.

However, Brown said he would be leery of running a horse with aluminum pads over soft turf, which could be the case depending how much rain fell here Friday.

Miss World has won twice since trainer Christophe Clement stretched her out around two turns. Pull Dancer looked very sharp winning a at Churchill Downs.